Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical image display apparatus, method, and program capable of supporting an operation of an ultrasonic probe in an ultrasonic diagnostic system that obtains an ultrasonic image of a subject.
Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, ultrasonic diagnostic systems using ultrasonic images have been put into practical use in medicine. Generally, such type of an ultrasonic diagnostic system includes an ultrasonic probe and a main body connected to the ultrasonic probe, and generates an ultrasonic image by transmitting an ultrasonic wave from the ultrasonic probe toward a subject to scan the subject, receiving an ultrasonic echo by the ultrasonic probe, and electrically processing the received echo signal in the main body.
Further, an ultrasonic diagnostic system provided with a structure that allows a puncture needle to be attached to the ultrasonic probe (puncture adapter) to facilitate a biopsy of a specific measuring target region of a subject using a dedicated puncture needle is also known. Such a system may display a guide line representing an approach path when the puncture needle is punctured (hereinafter, puncture guide line) on a display. When the ultrasonic diagnostic system is activated while puncturing a puncture needle into a subject using such an ultrasonic probe following the guide line, the operator may confirm the image inside the subject and the movement of the puncture needle at the same time, whereby a puncture operation (e.g., biopsy, drainage, and the like) may be performed safely.
In the meantime, medical images other than ultrasonic images, such as X-ray CT images, MRI images, and the like are clearer that the ultrasonic images. Hence, a system that displays a real-time ultrasonic image together with a cross-sectional image of an X-ray CT image, a MRI image, or the like whose cross-section is the same as that of the ultrasonic image being displayed is proposed (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No 2002-112998). Further, in such a system, by setting a line along which the puncture needle is to be punctured (hereinafter, puncture line) in the cross-sectional image based on a tumor or the like, moving the ultrasonic probe such that the scan plane of the ultrasonic probe and the cross-section that includes the puncture line (hereinafter, puncture cross-section), i.e., the ultrasonic image and the cross-sectional image, are aligned with each other, and performing a puncture at the aligned position, the puncture guide line of the puncture needle and the set puncture line may be aligned and the puncture may be performed safely. In this case, if the puncture guide line is displayed in the ultrasonic image, the scan plane of the ultrasonic probe and the puncture cross-section may be aligned by moving the ultrasonic probe such that the puncture guide line and the puncture line included in the cross-sectional image are aligned with each other.
But the operation of aligning the scan plane of the ultrasonic probe with the puncture cross-section is very complicated, because the position and the direction of the ultrasonic probe need to be changed many times on the body surface.
Consequently, a method is proposed in which two rectangular distance marks indicating the distance between the puncture line and the puncture guide line are disposed, one on the puncture guide line of the ultrasonic image and the other on the puncture line of the cross-sectional image, and the size of the rectangular distance mark is changed and displayed according to the distance between the scan plane of the ultrasonic probe and the puncture cross-section (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-040220). The use of the method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-040220 may facilitate the operation of aligning the scan plane of the ultrasonic probe with the puncture cross-section by aligning the puncture guide line with the puncture line.